living la vida local

Here we are. The start of the highly anticipated and agonizingly unavoidable independent study project period. Five weeks of solitude, solace, and solemnity. And yet, after a stress-riddled week of desperately contacting farmers for opportunities to work on their land, I will be spending my first night in the Aquarius Backpacker’s Hostel, just around the corner from our Byron Central Apartments. Perhaps not the most conducive atmosphere to producing a project on farming and food systems (or solemnity), but in the spirit of a former student’s pre-ISP advice, I will be spending this weekend taking some time to contemplate my project and reevaluate my plan of action. Unfortunately, my previous arrangements with the Whian Whian winery fell through, and I will instead be heading out there next week, which leaves me a whole week of time and space to fill with Independent Study Project (ISP) headaches.

But enough of that. This is a blog about food, specifically the local, sustainable kind derived from ingredients at the Byron Farmers’ Market in Northern New South Wales. Over the upcoming five weeks I will be attending the weekend farmers’ market in Byron Bay, visiting and working on contributing farms, and exploring the consumer side of the market via talks with local restaurants and my own experience living la vida local.

If we go back to the beginning, my passion for agriculture began on a small, educational farm in Athol, Massachusetts. The Farm School brings inner city students from the Boston area out to a rural farm setting to teach them the basics of organic agriculture and, more importantly, expose them to the joys of subsistence living. Over the course of my ten years of involvement with the farm, my passion for that one individual paradise has grown into a broader interest in the local food industry and community supported agriculture. When I stepped onto the gravel walk of the Byron Farmers’ Market, there was something there that struck a chord with me. It wasn’t the blissful grit of Athol or the pure tranquility of my family friends’ vast cattle ranch in the mountains of Colorado. This market was more of a feeling of humanity and cheerfulness. The stallholders were chatty, the food was vibrant, and the buskers were jamming out on recorders and didgeridoos alike. I wasn’t quite sure initially if it was the place for my ISP, but I knew it was a part of my new Australian home.

In light of this bubbly market atmosphere, I do not want my ISP to become an assessment of the sustainability of market contributors. By providing to the market at all, they have all taken a large step toward the promotion and exemplification of sustainable living. Instead, I hope “Back to the Roots” can trace a few food products though the land, the stories of the producers, the market setting, and into the mouths of my piers and professors. “Back to the Roots” is to be a conversation with farmers and consumers, an intimate look at agriculture, community, and the relationship between the two.